You Know You're at a Local Fun Run When....

I once finished a "5K" that had no finish line. No joke. I got back to where the race started, shrugged my shoulders as I kept on running and yelled, "where's the finish line?" Some guy (turned out to be the race director), runs from nowhere and says, "I guess you're at it." Then he goes ahead and instructs the teenage girls paying no attention to start paying attention because apparently where they were standing was the finish. He finally goes on to ask me, at the end of an early March nobody 5K, "do you usually run 14 low? That's awesome!"

The course was way short.

Alanrunz wrote:

....when your overall award is the same as the age group awards

....when the pacer car continues to get in your way at every turn

....when the starting and finish line is drawn out in chalk

Fan-FREAKING-tastic! Let me further comment on that though:

....when your overall award is the same as the age group awards OR when noeone recieves a tee AT ALL and you, as the lone winner, get a volunteer tee-shirt for winning. Which you would later learn is a women's volunteer shirt and have to exchange.

....when the pacer car continues to get in your way at every turn AND the cop actually slows down with about 200m to go to apologize for doing a poor job because he's from a different town and hadn't seen a map of the race more than five minutes before the race.

....when the starting and finish line is drawn out in chalk OR the race director draws a line in dirt.

Gotta love local races.

When you decide to wear nice clothes and run easy and still finish 7th at a 2.8 mile "5k".

When they only have XXL T-shirts that look like a mainsail on your stickfigure body.

When the PA system is blasting "Taking it to the Streets", "Running Down a Dream", and the rest of the "Running" songs (and you're trying to keep some aggressive death metal song in your head)

When the winner gets a trophy and you get a blue first place ribbon for taking second overall.

When you are hoping the miles will be marked so you can get splits, and miles 1, 2, and 4 have splits (and you have to extrapolate the rest).

When you are good enough to probably win but not good enough to be guaranteed to win, so you pick and choose your races carefully so as not to lose "a lowly fun run".

When you build an early lead, get led off course by the bike, lose the lead you built, catch up and build another lead, then don't feel like kicking because you're pissed about getting led off course, then the second place guy doesn't have the honor to allow you to win and outkicks you, then preens around like the winner even though he got 30 seconds of help.

When you're wondering where to hide your trainers now that you've switched into flats.

When you just PRed but don't know if you actually did. (or alternatively, when you are hoping your time is real).

When you win and one of your teachers says "Wow, do you think you can beat Jane Doe" (a talented local girl runner who runs 5:30 for the mile) and your PR is a minute faster.

When you run the first mile in 9:00 with a non running friend, then drop to 6:00 pace and are passing people like flies and spectators are gasping at your "awesomeness" even though the lead guys up front are running 5:00 pace.

.....when there are no numbers, no shirt, no timing, no cops, no food.....and they still want $20 entry and a can of food for the homeless. F**k off.

You know you're on LRC when weekend-warrior types rip on Local Fun Runs as if they run anything else.

You see everyone in this thread walking around like they're hot stuff. When in reality, they're nothing but washed up half decent ex-college runners with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning.

...one thing I like doing at fun runs is find a small child with a participation ribbon and ask them if they want to trade for my trophy (if I'm fortunate enough to win one) ...I enjoy running and racing but the trophies at fun runs have little meaning to me and are just clutter...however the look on the child's face when he or she gets a trophy for a ribbon is priceless.

also miss the days when the finish line was just a chalk line there was no crowd control...the race was not trying to generate money for this charity or that...the award was just a ribbon no t-shirt...the entry fee was $5...no preregistration...just a bunch of people that wanted to run fast and hard and have fun...no strollers, head phones,walkers etc ...it may have not been exactly 5k or 10k but if you were the first one back then you won, if not then there was next week

guess him being your bro is out

Several stopped-by-train responses. Did a half-marathon on Eglin AFB and had to stop for a plane from the local airport taxiing to the runway on base for take-off. I believe the lead runners got through so it was just the rabble that were delayed briefly.

Did a local club fun run once where you crossed a playground on the course. You were suppose to use a piece of equipment as you went by. I decided I'd use the monkey bars, approached them way too fast, too much momentum carried my legs forward and I nearly broke my neck as my wet hand slipped off the rung and down I went. Good grub afterwards though, so fun event over-all.

a goose named Silvio wrote:

I once finished a "5K" that had no finish line. No joke.

I did a 10K without a start or finish, in the middle of Iowa. I drive over to Hanlonton with a friend and we see about 10 people standing around. A guy says "we should start at the tracks since today's the day the sun sets between them". We stand around on the road and they tell us the course, run through town until you hit the T, take a left, and the take a right each time there's a crossroad, then a left again when you get back to the "T". The guy follows us in his pickup, on the dirt road, and his son hands us water out the passenger window. He stays back for a couple gals at the back of the "pack", but we figured out when we got back to the "T" and turned left to run into town. Can't see a soul except the kid that "won" and he's trotting around looking for someone. The guy pulls up in his pickup so we stop and stand around as he hands each of us a medal. Then some ladies from the town come out with pie, ice cream, and snacks and we all sit down together in park and chow down.

Elmore345 wrote:Also when you spot a few guys before the race and at the start line that look really good and you get worried about them, but end up beating them by miles!

Or the correllary to this...You look around at the start, know a ton of people (i.e. the "local fun run" crowd), see a few in-shape looking runners but don't see anyone who you think can beat you. But then 2 minutes in you're running way too hard and you're 50 yards behind some bald guy who ends up dusting you. Turns out the guy is in town visiting his sister/brother/mom/dad/whatever and wanted a race for a workout.

The difference to a bigger race is when do you stand on the start line of a bigger race and figure just because you don't know who the racers are that you're going to beat them all?

everyones a hobbyjogger wrote:

You see everyone in this thread walking around like they're hot stuff. When in reality, they're nothing but washed up half decent ex-college runners with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning.

That's me!!!

When you finish third overall but don't win the third place prize because you didn't preregister.

Ha! - I was reading a few of these to my girlfriend, who is not a runner, and occasionally walks a local 5k or half marathon and she came up with the following:

...when people are using spandex to hold things IN rather than for streamlining purposes.

The pace car in a marathon (1982) had speakers attached to the roof that was blaring the album "Chariots of Fire" non-stop the entire race. To my relief, I fell off the pace at 18 miles.

everyone who complains about going off course, even if led by a pace car/bike, needs to shut the hell up. You're a smart person, if you're going to pay money for a race, you should at least take the time to learn the course, or at least pay attention when the course is being explained before the race, if it's that bad of a race.

other than that, this is my favorite letsrun thread ever

Hahaha something very similar happened to me. Except it was an 8mile trail race "prediction run" - where you predicted your time beforehand and couldn't wear a watch and awards were based on how close you were. It was a one-way course and included running through a couple creeks, but then at about 6 miles in someone is standing in the path telling us to turn around because the stream up ahead is too deep. Problem was they let the first 6 or 7 people go through the stream but then stopped us right after them. We then had to find our way through unmarked trails til we found a road and then ran in random directions til we found the end of the race. When we got to end there were people coming from every direction trying to figure out where to stop. Funny thing was since we weren't allowed to wear watches, no one had any idea how far/how long we actually ran for and I guess they just didn't bother giving awards because they were all based on "predictions"

This happened to me! Took off a little to fast and started to cool my jets a bit when this bald guy with a grey beard passed me (Mind you I was 20 at the time). I figured I'd let the old guy pass me for a bit so I could draft. I mean he's old right? Well he started to pull away and I could never catch him. Turned out he was about 39(ish?) and he ran a 16:48 5k. I was shocked.